


King Of Hearts, Queen Of . . . Nothing

by ThatDamnKennedyKid



Series: When Icarus Met The Sun [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Female Tony Stark, Protective Thor, Thor Is Not Stupid, Thor gives her one, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2018-11-30 06:02:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11457486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatDamnKennedyKid/pseuds/ThatDamnKennedyKid
Summary: He was sure that she didn't remember, not with the way she had cried herself into drunken slumber in his arms. That did not mean he forgot. Not anything - not the painful slurs from her father that lingered in her mind, the barely visible scars across her arms and thighs from jumping into adulthood alone before she was no longer a child, how she had blubbered the name Yinsen over and over again like a regret.





	1. Midgardian Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JamsAndApples](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JamsAndApples/gifts).



He was sure that she didn't remember, not with the way she had cried herself into drunken slumber in his arms. That did not mean he forgot. Not anything - not the painful slurs from her father that lingered in her mind, the barely visible scars across her arms and thighs from jumping into adulthood alone before she was no longer a child, how she had blubbered the name Yinsen over and over again like a regret. 

That night was an evening that haunted his memory and kept him awake during his nights on Asgard. He would stand at the edge of his balcony and later the Bifrost, as if gazing out into the star-strewn abyss would grant him sight of her. 

"They fought." Heimdall had informed him. "The Captain has abandoned her."

He could do nothing more than duck his head down, praying for forgiveness. He should have been there with her. He could have helped her. He could have prevented one more nightmare from stealing into her psyche. 

_He had seen women weep. He had seen warriors cry. Neither felt quite like seeing tears come to Tony's eyes, the valiance with which she fought them back for the better part of four hours. The Captain hadn't even seemed to notice the effect his words had. Vision had seen, but he didn't understand, didn't know what was within his power to do to make them disappear._

_He took it upon himself to be her guardian and companion that night, keeping close to her side and weaving her away from Captain Rogers and towards Dr. Banner. The good doctor, hugging the engineer tightly, cast him a grateful glance. Even in the company of two sentinels, however, Tony continued to drink. She was never without a full glass, but it was always of something different every time he cast her a glance. Dr. Banner was unable to stay the entirety of the night, so when the gala ended, it was up to him to bring her back to her floor, help her to bed._

_For someone so drunk, she was still incredibly poised. Still, the tide of her battle was turning against her in the lonely silence of the elevator. She was out of sight now - no need to keep herself as composed. He had an arm about her waist and she was leaning into him._

_"You're incredibly warm." She murmured, shifting to press her chest more against his side._

_"Does it soothe you?"_

_"The Reactor always hurts." She admitted, softly. "The heat helps."_

_"Then by all means." He pulled her closer, hugging her, resting his chin on the top of her head. "I am here whenever you need me."_

_She snorted, the sound coupled with bittering resentment. "You know, Steve said the same thing to me after New York."_

_He pulled back just enough to tilt her head up, holding her gaze steady. "I am not Steven."_

_She blinked and the first tear fell. She tried to speak, but nothing came out._

The sunless landscape of gold that was Asgard stretched out before him, a perfect platform for his thoughts. 

_The dazzled way she looked at him when he reached down to kiss her hand . . . even Jane had not looked at him so, even as unaccustomed to the gesture as she was. He imagined Tony, a woman of power, wealth and status would have many people offer her the courtesy. Apparently not._

_"It's, uh, not really necessary." She said. After a moment, though, she couldn't keep back the grin. "You're more than welcome to keep going, though."_

_"Our initial meeting was tumultuous." He returned, smiling up at her from his bent position over the back of her hand. "Neither was time particularly afforded to us afterwards. So, I shall greet you now with the geniality you are deserving of. I hope to make up for lost time and manners."_

_She was even more dazed now, but her smile remained. "I think we're even. I did punch you in the face and throw you through a tree."_

_"Aye, you did." His smile got wider, more mischievous. "But such are the arguments of warriors. Tonight, you are the industrialist princess and I your escort. The courtly settings of a gala are nothing like the training grounds."_

_The gears were spinning in her head. He seen her conclusion in her gaze - an idiot berserker on the battlefield hides the political tactician of the court._

_"I can only imagine the kind of swooning that happens on Asgard over you."_

_"Were I honest about it, I think you would like me less. Though, rumour tells me that you are not harmless either." He stood properly again, stepping into her personal space. She eyed him up and down, taking stock of the way his muscles tested the hems of the suit jacket._

_"Certainly no slouch. Gotta get ahead somehow, right? It's very interesting what you can get done during a dance in a low-backed dress. I've ironed out he details for three mergers in this hall alone."_

_He hummed. "I'm sure you were very persuasive."_

_She snorted. "Good thing Rogers didn't hear that. He'd have a fit. He already thinks I'm a whore. No need for more ammunition."_

_He tucked her under his arm, holding her against him beside the ornate bar. "'Tis something I've never understood, that."_

_"Hmm? What don't you get?"_

_"The names they call women who share themselves with many partners." He shook his head. "On Asgard, it is not so. Neither men nor women are demeaned for our sexuality. It is something natural, something meant to be. Why repress it? I cannot vouch for the years before me, so perhaps it is due to a line of powerful and unopposed queens who did what they liked when they liked to the damnation of others' opinions. I cannot say."_

_She raised an eyebrow. "And those wenches you talk about in your stories?"_

_"Serving girls in the halls of warriors. It is only nature that when alcohol and the lust of battle combine, there is tension to be released. Many of the girls are happy to assist. Those who are not open to advances are not advanced upon after rejection. It is all very simple and clean. Here, it is so much different. Human women are treated as prizes by men who have no claim over them, a thing to be won, and cannot bear the thought of someone having possessed it before they."_

_"Alright, let's roleplay this for a second, right?" She sips her whiskey. "For sake of argument, you're after me. I've slept around all of my adult life. You don't feel even a little bit jealous or possessive that there might be men in this very room who I've slept with?"_

_"No. It's irrational. If, in this game, we are a couple and there is a man or there are men with whom you are currently sleeping, that is not alright. But past lovers are something you would have to deal with if I took you to the court of Asgard. I find it extremely unfair to expect a woman to put up with her husband's ex-lovers while being perfectly accepting of a man throwing fits because his wife had the audacity to seek affection and pleasure before she met him. It's absurd."_

_She chuckled lowly, passing him her cup. He peered at it curiously before taking a sip of the amber liquid and humming. It wasn't unpleasant. "You and I may just be better friends than I thought, Muscles."_

_He huffed a laugh against the rim of the glass, leaning down to kiss her styled hair. "Much better."_

_She snorted, winking slowly before bursting out into giggles. "Start flirting after the first couple drinks. I'm always easier then."_

_He made a considering hum. "I don't need you 'easier'. You're fine as you are. Should you feel inclined towards me, you'll feel it just as much sober as drunk."_

_"Oh." She blinked at him, for once at a loss. It felt so wonderfully strange - the cultures that should stand between them like a chasm was like nothing at all, no vaster than the whisper of space between their bodies. Two stars, he mused, drawn to the other's gravity but unmoving. "Can't say I've ever had someone flirt with me like that before."_

_"Aye. I find you similar as well."_

_"In what way?"_

_"What brings your suitors to you is your title as Stark heiress. I, too, am desired for title. It would be a mighty leap in status to become the princess-consort to the Crown Prince of Asgard, do you not think?"_

_The glimmer in her eyes told him she understood._

_His lean slouched to be more casual, his mouth closer to her ear and his voice lower. "And yet, I stand here with you, together as nothing more than Thor and Tony. 'Stark' means nothing to me, as 'Odinson' means nothing to you. Neither am I impressive to you the way I was to Jane. We are comrades, allies, friends. We exist together and separately as equals, majestic in our own rights and monarchs atop the thrones of worlds. The manner in which we received our crowns makes us no less royal, no less powerful."_

_She watched him, obviously intrigued at his philosophy. "I wondered at the time, between our own group issues and the Scepter, why Loki targeted me, my Tower. I suppose there's my answer."_

_"Aye. Loki would have recognized you much faster than I. Your mind, too, presents itself as another rival of his. Was it not you who figured him out? Thwarted him first and last?"_

_She took a long drink slowly. "I suppose so."_

_They turned their gazes back to the dance floor, simply breathing for long moments._

_Abruptly, he stood straight again, movign in front of her and dipping his head. "Would you dance with me, Lady Stark?"_

_She blinked at him again. "How much trouble would I get in for refusing the Prince of Asgard?"_

_He met her gaze again, eyes glittering with all the mirth of his grin. "Only the best kind."_

It would not be long now before the final arrangements were made. 

_He found his armrest occupied by Tony when he went to reach for the green tea Bruce had made him. "How's it going with Foster?"_

_"Jane?" He felt his mood dampen. "I've not seen her."_

_"I would offer to fly you out there, but you've got that covered. What happened?"_

_"I should like to discuss it with you, simply not here." He murmured in reply._

_Unlike his expectation, she simply nodded. "C'mon. I know a place."_

_To the betterment of his surprise, this 'place' wound up being a little section of walkway with some grass and a seat overlooking Staten Island. behind them was the back of a pizzeria. They were visited by no one save the occasional jogger, too absorbed in their own music and motion to even notice the two Avengers sitting together peacefully on a rather artless bench._

_"So, what happened?" She was half-cocked on the bench, facing him with her head supported on her fist. Her gaze was soft, unjudgemental. For all her sex appeal, her fervour and danger, it was only now that she just looked like a woman. No catches, no extravagance, just a woman named Tony. He felt like just a man next to her, not a godling or Prince. He just_ was _and it felt nice._

_"She is very attracted to me and I to her, but there is much missing." He looked down at his hands, consideringly. "I never looked so much at the world around me before her, despite Loki's attempts to prevent me from becoming boorish. I am very attracted to her mind, how she thinks. She, too, attracts me physically. I know she fell for my looks and was intrigued by my world and my perspective. As I said, however, there is still very much missing between us. I am not around enough to satisfy her need for companionship, as evidenced by my time unable to travel the Bifrost. In order to fight Malacath, I had to hide her away in Asgard. I found that while she was insatiably curious, she would never stay there. She gazed upon the realm the way one walks through an exhibit - taking all things in and even learning, but not destined to stay and unlikely to return. Despite her strong will, she is no fighter. Her intelligence is her strength, beyond anything else. She could not partake in all that I am. It was simply not possible for her."_

_Tony nodded slowly, pursing her lips in thought. She turned her gaze out over the water._

_"If you've an opinion, I would like to hear it." He nudged, trying to catch her gaze again._

_"I don't know what to say, really." She admitted. "I mean, I wouldn't let you go just like that. A few technical issues are no reason to walk out of a great movie." She chuckled, face glazing over in bittersweet memory. "But then, what do I know? I can't make 'em stay."_

_His voice dropped lower, a little more careful approaching this. "Miss Potts is gone as well, isn't she?"_

_Tony looked down. "Isn't this supposed to be about you? All I meant by that was that I really have no opinion. I wouldn't have, but these are obviously big problems for her. What about you, Point-break? How do you feel about the break-up? Not great, I'm thinking."_

Soon, he would release his heart and follow its motion, wherever that may leave him.

_No one had realized what, exactly, had happened until JARVIS asked him to stay on the platform to wait for Tony. Of course, the rest of the team took notice and watched from the living room windows as the suit walked the path for dismantlement and by the time it was halfway through, Tony was slumping out of it, unconscious. He had rushed to her, lifting her as gently as he could out of the remnants of the armour (she loved it so, he would feel awful being the one to harm it). Bruce, weary and barely conscious himself, went to stumble out, but he stopped him._

_"Do not worry." Thor called to him, kneeling to better adjust his grip of her and push some of her black lengths from her face. She was bruised everywhere, blood leaking lethargically from her brow, nose and lip, but there was no need to worry the doctor. Both he and the Hulk greatly cared for the engineer and she should be harmed too greatly, he had no doubts that Hulk would reemerge from his fresh slumber to avenge her. He tucked her head into his shoulder to hide her face from the team - their worry would only exacerbate the problem. "It seems to be mostly exhaustion."_

_JARVIS, bless the AI, backed him up. "I believe it is detrimental for the team to fluster over her. Please, there are baths and meals ready for you when you enter."_

_"Thanks, JARVIS." Clint sighed, giving up and tottling off. Natasha lingered a moment longer, but with one last meaningful look, walked away. Steve seemed skeptical, his advanced eyesight unfooled by Thor's maneuvering. Bruce, however, tugged at his sleeve._

_"Please." The scientist whispered. "If something happens, JARVIS will tell us. Let's just . . . go."_

_With a tightening of his jaw and pursed lips, Steve nodded, helping Bruce back to his room._

_Distractions gone, Thor took his time in perfecting his grip on Tony. She was clearly concussed, likely from when she smashed against the building and her regular snark cut off. It is likely her AI companion took over the suit for what little of the battle remained, running scans to care for her health._

_"Aye, fool, you weren't careful." He whispered, standing slowly and taking even, measured paces to her bedroom. To jostle her too much would be to injure her further. She hardly moved in his arms, only the occasional whimper and the rise and fall of her chest letting him know she was still mostly fine. Her headache tomorrow, should she wake at all before the day after, would be splitting and she would be miserable._

_She looked so small here, quiet and still in his arms. It was unsettling. She was ever so lively, so kind and explosive. She wasn't one to be left silent and lost like this. She would normally be making quips about his arms or asking if he wanted her to brush his hair out because it got particularly tangled this time. It was so charming, having her ask after something so benign, so temperate._

_He laid with her that night, kept her chest pressed to his because he knew the warmth of his body eased the ache of the Reactor. He took his time massaging out all the possible aches in her upper body, taking particular care with her neck and collarbones. It would not do to injure her further with a misuse of his strength._

_"I will stay with you until . . . " Words failed him, Asgardian and English alike. "I will stay with you."_

_Stubborn as ever, she awoke early that morning under his watchful gaze and did, indeed, have a splitting headache._

_"You are injured." He insisted, keeping her pressed into the bed. "You need to remain here."_

_"What I need is to get clean." She winced.  "I feel like death got smothered by a cement truck full of ancient compost."_

_He frowned, trying to think of what Midgardian borders he would cross with his suggestion, if he would offend or scare her in any way. " . . . Your concussion is quite severe. I cannot leave you alone in such a state, not until you are not to unbalanced by it."_

_"I'm alright, Thor."_

_"The dilation of your pupils says differently."_

_"I'll be alright." She amended, trying again to sit up._

_He sighed. "I can go get Natasha if her presence would put you more at ease, but I cannot leave you unattended. Please."_

_She studied him for a moment, the impassiveness of her expression ringing faintly, but alarmingly, of Loki. At length, she sighed. "Fine."_

_"You would like me to get Natasha?"_

_"Nah." She seemed to resolve herself. "I've been in that shower with people I trust and like less than you. It's fine. Are you uneasy about it at all?"_

_He shook his head. "I've nothing to be ashamed of nor to hide. I do now wish to pressure you to be vulnerable in front of me."_

_"Why?" She puffed under her breath. "You're the only one that doesn't judge me."_

_He smiled, bringing their foreheads together. "There is not a being alive that is infallible and to be so is a nearly impossible lofty goal. You are more than wonderful as you are."_

_"Just because I got hurt is no reason to butter me up. If you want something, you just have to say."_

_He hummed, nuzzling into her nose a little bit. "Words have never been a strength of mine and I oft find them manipulative and lacking. If I cannot speak true, then perhaps you'll believe my actions."_

_Another little nuzzle and he tilted her head back just enough to press the gentlest of kisses against her lips, moving tenderly about her face - across her cheekbones, up her nose, on her eyelids._

_"I care for you so greatly, but there are never opportunities for me to prove that. I should like to do so now, wih your leave."_

_"I'm not exactly in a sexy state right now-"_

_"I desire you as well, but that will come later. Sex between people and desire between lovers are entirely different and I crave the latter from you. That will take time, a while yet to win over your heart and get past the gates of your mind. No, I will show you tonight what a lover's care feels like, to know surrender and affection outside of joining."_

_It took her a minute, but finally she sighed, falling limp in his arms. "Okay."_

_Carefully, he picked her up, mindful of her head and the way she winced when jostled. He carried her to the bathroom, where he placed her on the toilet seat, kneeling before her and stripping her out of her boots, then guiding her jeans down her legs. He slid his hands up her thighs, too light to let the calluses catch, before dipping under her shirt to slip that over her head._

_"Are you comfortable with being bare in my presence?" He asked, voice a low, intimate rumble._

_Embarrassment was clear on her features, but she nodded. He had an inkling that her body was no what brought forth the nervousness, but the intimacy._

_He helped her stand, carefully hooking his fingers into the waistband of her panties before letting them drop. Her guided her head to rest against his collarbone, unhooking her bra before rubbing slowly over her back. She sighed against him and he felt her eyelashes flutter against his skin. He pulled the offending material away, letting it, too, pool about her ankles._

_"May I?" He asked, tipping her head back. Her eyes flickered to his mouth._

_"Yeah."_

_He sat down on the edge of the tub, pulling her onto his lap. One hand on the back of her neck, the other wrapped around her waist, he pulled her into a crushingly slow kiss. He took time like he would never run out of it, rubbing the heat from his hands into her chilled skin. A couple of times, especially when she had her tongue in his mouth, she would get antsy, trying to grind against him._

_"Let me." He whispered, pulling back just enough to shed his leather under-armour (having abandoned the plating before taking sentry in her bed). He let her know his pleasure as her hands skimmed over his body, delighting in the feel of the musculature. Her eyes were rivetted to the valleys and peaks of his abdomen, so he took his time leaving little marks and kisses along her neck and jaw. Eventually, her hands found their way into his hair, tugging as need built up inside her. But this was not about carnal satisfaction, and he thwarted her efforts to speed things along._

_"Adjust the water to your liking, love." He broke away from her lips, gently lifting her off him and switching their places. She was now perched on the porcelain of the massive tub and shower. He began undoing the clasps of his boots and his belts, stripping methodicallt of the last of his armour. "Shower or bath, whichever you would prefer."_

_"I don't think I can stand." Her joking tone was slightly hysterical. "J, run a bath."_

_"I would like you to do it." He interrupted, tipping her head back. "Please."_

_She stared at him, calculating, before she turned and reached for the taps. "I'll do it your way. But, if I'm allowed to ask, is there a reason?"_

_"I want you entirely comfortably. With the bath to your own liking, made by you, you will feel the most at ease." He was finished undressing by the time he finished speaking._

_"And you? What if you don't like it?"_

_"I'm here for you, not for me." He settled behind her and kissed acroas her shoulders. She shuddered and slumped. He filed that away, certain to need it later. "Try not to think, only to feel."_

_"I can't." She replied, bittersweet smile on her lips. "There's always a catch."_

_"And mine is?"_

_"We'll see, won't we?" Her tone hardened there and he disliked it greatly._

_He knelt, hands running up her legs. "Who hurt you so?"_

_She didn't bother to stiffen. "I've never had anyone, I guess aside from Pepper, who really cared about me. There's always a goal, always something they want. I'll go so far as to say some of them even liked me, but not enough to stay after they got what they came for. I'm not worth that."_

_"Such beauty locked with such sadness." He lamented, reaching up to push a lock of hair behind her ear, stroke her cheek. "I am a god, Tony. There is nothing you have that I could possibly want. My desire for you is pure. I have no use for your fortune, no wish to sabotage your company, no need to see you grovel for me. I did not chose you because I fancied a weakling to lord over - I admire you so because despite those mortal failings, you outshine many in Asgard. I am drawn to the raw strength within you, the storied power which allows you to keep flying even when you're being shot down."_

_There was hesitance in her gaze, sharp, painful disbelief. She looked away and shrugged. "Like I said; we'll see."_

_He pursed his lips, but nodded. "We shall indeed. I will allow time to prove my worth to you."_

_She gave him a smile that said she didn't believe him, but was willing to let him try. He knew the pieces of her heart were fragile. Mother and Loki had taken it upon themselves to teach him very valuable lessons:_

_"The hands of a warrior unable to be gentle," Loki had murmured, fingers dancing over dazzling paper-thin glass, "are unfit to wield a weapon."_

_"The heart of a king unable to be compassionate," Mother had cooed, showing him how to hold a starling, "are unfit to pass judgement."_

_Tonight, he promised himself, he would show her all the gentle compassion he was capable of, even though it would never be as much as she deserved._

It was time to return.

* * *

The Tower was more silent than he expected, even though Heimdall had told him she had been abandoned. Her bodiless servant, the ever-loyal JARVIS, lead him silently down to the workshop she was hidden away in. The door slid open for him and there she lay, unconscious across her worktop. Dozens of half-finished products and projects were scattered about and he could only smile sadly. 

Arrowheads were to her left, a black gauntlet to her right. Half-off the desk was the Captain's shield, face-down, a metal arm laying across it. Samples of reinforced fabric and thread were everywhere along with scraps of metal and soldering equipment. 

He brushed back strands of her hair, easing her back into his arms. Carefully, he picked her up and carried her from the lab.

* * *

Watching her wake was one of his greatest joys. 

"My ceiling isn't gold."

He rumbled with low laughter and her head immediately snapped over to him, eyes blowing wide. 

"Thor? Whe- Did you bring me to Asgard?"

"As much as I appreciate your brilliance, I also think it is necessary for you to be away for a while. No pain, no reminders, no guilt, no cares. You are mine for the next month and in such a time, I will entreat you with all the luxuries Asgard has to offer."

She collapsed back onto the bed with a low moan of pain. "Are you serious about this?"

"Serious enough to request JARVIS make the arrangements with Lady Potts." He grinned at the wonder in her eyes. "I know I am torn between worlds and haven't the time to give you that you deserve, but I will give you everything the ruling of Asgard does not take from me."

She softened, beckoning him over with her hand. He went to her, laying down alongside her when she shifted over. Wetness brimmed along her lashes as she stroked over his cheek. "It's okay, Thor. I understand, I really do. You have to make sure to take care of yourself as well, you know? I don't-"

He took her hand from his cheek with a smirk, kissing the knuckles and receiving the same starstruck expression he got the first time. "Don't be like you? My beautiful Midgardian sun, I will not allow either of us to burn out. I promise. But now, you are in need of attention. Allow me to care for you."

She closed her eyes with a shuddering breath and fell limp against the sheets. "You didn't bring me all the way to Asgard behind my back to let me have a choice, did you?"

He pulled her close, nuzzling into her neck, inhaling the musk of her human skin that had him wavering so. "I do not wish to see you suffer. I promise, it will not be a punishment to be at my mercy."

Her hand covered the one over her neck, nuzzling into the rough palm of his hand with a resigned sigh. "That was never the problem."

"What is, then?" He pushed, voice gentle as if handling a frightened horse. 

She huffed out a breath, but it was wet with tears to be shed against her will. The struggle to speak was evident on her face. "Do you understand what happened to me every time I let someone else take care of me?"

He shook his head, afraid his voice would shatter this new openness. His eyes implored her to continue. 

"My father was a prick and my mother was a well-meaning but totally helpless drunk. We had a butler who raised me in their stead and died shortly after they did. Obadiah Stane, my father's business partner and later mine, tried to kill me. Twice. Rhodey cleaned up my vomit once in MIT after a particularly hard weekend and let me sleep it off in his dorm, but said he wouldn't let me lean on him to be a functioning adult. Pepper couldn't deal with me - told me to my face I'm too much work, too much strain. That's not even to mention the Avengers-" She cut off, swallowing thickly and closing her eyes again. "We were just starting to get along. Especially Steve and I. I- I- Is it me? It's gotta be. No matter what terrible things Bucky did, does, he gets a pass, a plea-bargain. I get left in a nearly-flightless suit in Siberia as they fly off in a plane that belongs to  _me_. Everyone gets a second chance. Everyone but me, Thor. And you're really good to me,  _so good_. What is there left, really, if I manage to alienate you too? I mean, out of everyone, you have the most patience for fuckups. I mean, Loki  _is_  your brother, but I've got just that right flavour that drives people away."

She choked out a laugh at the puppy-ish rumbling sound of pain that came from Thor's chest. He gathered her into his arms, holding her as closely as thier bodies would allow. 

"Should I tell you, then, what I see when I see you?"

"Go for it."

"There is vision and talent and intelligence all rolled into the crafting of your genius mind. There are none so brilliant as yourself, even beyond the mortal realm. But past that is a person who outshines the works of her mind. Layered with tragedy upon tragedy, standing in the mire of all her poorest decisions, she glows so wonderfully radiant. She looks up at who she wants to be, unknowing that the ceiling is a mirror, and claws her way ever-steady towards it. She pulled herself from selfishness when many would have traded their morals for their lives. She stood in a baptism of fire and let the superficial burn away to reveal the legendary heroine within. She is the one, faced with her own mortality at the hands of the machine keeping her alive, who chose not to let others die to prolong her own life. This is she who guided an assured annihilation into space, more than willing to give her life to ensure those of comrades who neither understand or appreciate her. Tell me, what kind of undeserving soul does things like that?"

She curled into him, a fine shaking taking over her body as she tried to control herself. 

"Tony, you are my most lovely Midgardian sun. I have stood at the side of the best of your realm and above them all, you shine brilliantly."

She sniffled. "And you said you weren't good with words."

He chuckled, kissing her hair. "And you said you don't deserve my love. It seems even that which we think of ourselves can also be untrue."

She pulled back some to meet his eye. 

"Do you not believe me?"

Her lips quirked up in a watery facsimile of a grin. "You're more convincing than Loki gave you credit for."

He tucked some hair behind her ear. "My persuasive tongue was what got us in the most trouble."

She closed her eyes and let the conversation fall away.

* * *

She woke some time later to thick warmth and a cloud of steam obscuring her vision.

"Don't tense, love." Thor rumbled at her back, beard scratching along the nape of her neck as he reached for a pitcher of water. He filled it in the massive pool, pushing her forwards the slightest bit and soaking her hair, but not her face. She sighed into the mists. "Heat soothes your chest, but you give your body so little attention."

She hummed and let him continue. 

Her body was completely limp in his arms, but he took great care to keep her face dry and unobstructed. He soaped his hands with something that smelled strongly, but not overwhelmingly of coconuts, hilariously. He lathered her hair with it, taking his time in working his fingers through every knot and smoothing every strand. He was careful again in his rinsing before another oil came out, this one a conditioner. The next bottle held a bodywash. He poured it generously onto a cloth and arranged her to be guided by him, but free floating. He lathered the cloth, then went to work buffing delicate circles over her skin. He washed every intimate crevice she possessed, from the nape of her neck to the valleys between her toes. He even gathered a little metal file and cleaned beneath her nails. He was silent the whole time, absorbed completely in his work. 

She imagined what he would have been like as a human rather than an Asgardian - a poet, an artisan, an engineer like her. She could see him, low-hung jeans and a dirty cotton shirt, bent over a problematic part of the armour with her, helping her find a solution. But she dismissed them. She didn't need or want him human. He was perfect just the way he was, all miles of valleyed golden skin. 

He was more than she could ever ask for, really. He treated her like priceless china, despite witnessing how much punishment she could truly take. He was always so careful, every touch gentle, methodical and patient no matter what he was doing. Hell, he was careful moving the armour around when she asked him for help. Even in his hugs, he went to great pains to ensure he never hurt her Reactor. He wouldn't even touch it wihout permission. It warmed her heart as little did, but not as much as his attitude. His flagrant lack of judgement made her want to cry. So simple and lovely and tender - Thor was everything she had ever wished for in MIT, wrapped up in herself and sobbing in the early morning hours after Ty would leave. 

But it was so, so tempting to just fall into him. He could have had her days after the Chitauri, when he apologized for being to hasty with his opinion of her. It would have been so easy to let his sweep her away, never let her feet touch ground again and she would have given over her soul and body in an instant. But the fear . . . The fear of loosing such a thing, when his infatuation wore off or she was more work than he wanted, was though to scare her away. She didn't know if she could handle such a break and she wasn't willing to find out. She hurt so much already . . . 

"Do not think." He rumbled, hands smoothing all across her body. "Only feel. Let your heart make the decision this time, not your head. Affection is not a logical thing."

She sighed in contentment, letting him work.

* * *

She was wrapped up in the bedsheet, sitting on Thor's lap with her head tucked under his chin, watching the stars wheel overhead. The gold of Asgard never dimmed, never faded and was ethereal in its beauty. Timeless and priceless, worth all the more for its singular beauty. She wondered if that was the difference that Thor loved about Earth - everything repeated, but it was all fleeting, never to stay in your grasp for long and always to pass on, with or without you. 

"Do you think we can ever be together?" She murmured into his collarbone. 

"The answer is in your heart, Tony. My own has already handed itself over to you."

"I think I would like that." She admitted, curling in tighter on him, daring to hope. "I really do."

"Then I will make it so." He promised with a kiss to her hair. "Don't worry, love. I will be here forever."

"And it doesn't bother you that I won't be?"

He nuzzled into her, bringing her closer. "Not all the gods were born immortal. But that is a talk for another time. Sleep, Tony, and leave all your worries to me. I will love you, care for you, be here when you wake. Sleep."

 


	2. Golden Prince

Pepper and Rhodey's faces looked like they were expecting doom as they sat down in the living room of Avengers Tower. Tony sat opposite them, a glass of chlorophyll in her hand that she didn't seem to notice, zoned out much the same way she used to be on scotch at five a.m. after a long dinner party. But the air about her was entirely too sober for that worry.

"What did you do?" Flew out of Pepper's mouth before she could think better of it. Her head rolled on her shoulders - eerie similar to when Rhodey had found her in her hotrod, dying from paladium poisoning - to look up at them.

"Me?" She blinked. "Something extremely stupid."

"Was the Captain here?" Rhodey spat.

Her face soured some. "Nah. I did something else very stupid."

Pepper noticed the little wooden box and the two identical stacks of documents sitting on the table. She eyed Tony for a moment before taking the opposite couch and lifting up a stack with a sticky note on it, a messy  _Pepper_ on it. She opened the folder under Tony's cool gaze and had to resist the urge to immediately throw them away. 

"What is this?!" She demanded. 

"Maybe you should have looked in the box first."

Rhodey picked it up like it was a bomb, carefully handling the strangely ornate little thing before touching  _something_ and an invisible lid lifting up of its own accord. Inside, there was a fist-sized apple nestled in plush purple velvet.

"You got an apple made out of gold?" He asked with a sigh already embedded. 

Pepper's face morphed into anger. "What the hell does a golden apple have to do with giving Rhodey and I control of your estate?"

Tony swirled the chlorophyll, blankly meeting their gazes. "Thor gave that to me. Actually, more to the point,  _Odin_ did."

That stopped them both. 

"So . . . What does that mean?" Rhodey asked. 

"That's an Apple of Idunn. What keeps the gods young. Immortal." She blinked at them again and tears gathered on her lashes. "I told you I did something stupid."

Pepper immediately softened, putting the paperwork back and moving around the table to pull the brunette into her arms. "Did something happen with Thor?"

Tony's mask cracked and she bit back the beginnings of a sob. "Yeah, Pep. I fell in love with him."

Rhodey softened too, coming to sit on her other side, encasing her between the two of them. "Oh, Tones."

"I know." She laughed, a little bitter. "How the hell do I keep getting myself into these messes?"

Pepper kissed the side of her face. "What do you want to do?"

"I want to go with him." Was her immediate answer. "But its not like I can just up and leave everything for an indeterminate amount of time. I can't just run away from everything I've got going on here. More importantly, I think . . ." The smile she gave them was watery. "I can't just leave you two alone here without any explanation. Or imput. I love Thor, I really do, but you two are my family."

Pepper pet down her hair with an unconscious coo and Rhodey gave a tight smile back. 

"You never stopped me when I went off to the military." Rhodey began, unable to maintain eye contact. "Just after Jarvis died, when you were really all alone, you didn't ever try and dissuade me. Never a tear, always a beaming smile. You stood on the tarmac to see me off with a kiss on the cheek and a fierce hug. You took over the company and used all of that intense intelligence to make my job easier, keep me safer. I knew. I could tell. So, that said, I'm not going to be the person now to be selfish, to demand that you stay down here with us when your dream, your heart, is on the other end of that bridge. I left you alone for years on end without a word, knowingly. I think I can handle you being gone, and that I can take care of things for you in the interim."

She turned her eyes to her other best friend. "Pepper?"

The CEO let out a heavy sigh. "Tony, I've stood next to you for years, seen you though ever possible phase an adult can have. Right now, you have a chance at happiness that you've never really had. No one ever made you truly happy, least of all me. I've seen the way you look at him. JARVIS shows me sometimes. I've been here when he's walked you from the lab to your bedroom and you're fast asleep in his arms. The woman that came back from Asgard seven months ago is not the woman who went there. There's not even any bags under your eyes or any psychotic engineering binges. I'm dangerously close to thinking that Thor might be good for you. A forever kind of good, if you're at the stage of looking to  _Rhodey_ for love advice."

"Hey!"

"You're still single, sir, so hush."

"Mmmph."

"Sweets," Pepper cupped her face, "do you want to go? Forever?"

She blinked back tears. "Yes."

"Then go."

She burst into tears and hugged them tightly.

* * *

It was another three months before it was all settled. Rhodey would get custody of all the Iron Man suits and would take her place whenever she wasn't on Earth. Pepper got entire control of Stark Industries, including all of her shares in the company and all of the assets involved with the Avengers. They both got a credit card linked directly to her bank account with no limits. JARVIS, bless his soul, would oversee and take care of everything. Pepper would take the estate in New York and Rhodey got Malibu.

All that was left now was Tony, a suitcase of her clothes in one hand and a briefcase suit in the other. Thor stood on the balcony, overlooking the city and giving her her last moments.

"Take care of each other, alright?" She whispered, arms wrapped around them both.

"Of course." Pepper murmured. 

"Damn right." Rhodey replied, gruff. 

"I love you, you know that, right?"

Pepper squeezed her tighter. "I know."

"I . . . " Rhodey swallowed thickly. "I love you too, Tony."

She pulled back, smiling bittersweetly, before dabbing at her eyes. "Here I am, all emotional. How do people do this? It's so exhausting."

Pepper let out a startled laugh and Rhodey snorted. Thor returned, hefting her suitcase and smiling placidly. Tony looked between them, heart torn, before she ran back over to them. 

"Here." She strapped two thick bangles to each of Pepper's wrists, swirling red and gold, then two matte black watch-looking bracelets to Rhodey's. "I couldn't sleep last night worrying about you two. All you is tap anywhere on the devices twice with two fingers and they'll encase your hand in a gauntlet. Pepper's have little repulsors in them because I had more room to work, but yours work with a sonic emission that will deafen and stun the target."

They pulled her into one last hug before Pepper extracted them and pushed her towards Thor. 

"Thank you." She was biting back tears. "I'll wear them everywhere. Now go. You've got to go."

She nodded and picked up her case suit, walking over to Thor and standing next to him on the platform that would now turn Rhodey into Iron Man. "I promise, I will come back."

"We won't forget you, Tony."

Her eyes were locked on them even as the Bifrost slammed into them, leaving only the sigil in her wake. 

The two fell to the ground together, holding each other through the wave of selfish grief that overcame them, the ornate box behind them as empty as the Tower now was. 

* * *

Three years. 

God, it didn't feel like three years. 

She swung around in his arms, red dress swirling with golden shimmer. All of the laughter, the merriment engulfed her to the fullest. 

"Had only Mother been here to see you." Thor laughed, pulling her back in close and lifting her up, twirling them both. "I think she'd have adored you. Almost more than myself, I'd wager."

She giggled like she hadn't since she started MIT, a lifetime ago now, clutching his shoulders. Her hair had gotten longer, now a veritable cascade of bronze down her back.

"My beautiful Midgardian Sun . . ." He cooed, setting her back down, but holding her close. 

"Careful, Muscles, I might think you're coming onto me." She chirped, leaning up to steal a kiss. 

"I find myself in the most fortunate position of already possessing the loveliest woman in the room."

"You've been talking to Loki again, haven't you."

"Aye, but you know as well as I do that I'm not lying."

"Mmm. Maybe." She grinned up at him. "How do you plan on going about proving that to me?"

"Easily." He swept her off the dancefloor and they were beyond the hall in a moment's notice. Backed into one of the many dark corners of the palace, he cradled her close. With one banded arm wrapped about her waist and the other buried in her hair, he kissed her. She melted into him, moaning brokenly. 

"So lovely." He cooed again. "I should like to bathe you tonight."

She panted against his lips, tucking some stray hair behind his ear. "That sounds wonderful. Not to mention the Reactor would like some breathing room outside this dress."

"Was it uncomfortable?"

"No, no, it was fine. But we spent longer at this one than we have at the others. I think it just outstayed its welcome is all."

"I see. The sooner to our rooms, then, my dearest."

The walk back was slow and even-paced. The quiet of the Asgardian evening overtook them and they strolled along the outside of the wall, simply taking in the stars wheeling overhead. Of all the things to captivate her the most, the stars never failed to seize her attention. His arm around her waist guided her and she curled into the warmth he exuded. By the time they reached their chambers, she was pleasantly loose, almost dazed with serenity.

She sat on the bed while he stoked the fire back to roaring flame, removing her shoes and placing them on the trunk at the end of the bed. He removed the top layer of his ceremonial dress while she unlaced the front of her dress - made in such a way specially for her ailment. Once he was down to his soft leathers, he walked over to her, helping her out of the red garment and the corset and hanging both on the back of a settee. He stripped her of the rest of her undercoats, leaving her bare. She, in turn, undid the many buckles and straps of the leathers before pulling the soft cotton off his shoulders. She undid the lacing of his trousers, slipping them down his hips for him to kick off. 

This trust had taken years to build inside her. The sheer level of intimacy had been so catastrophic to her worldview in the beginning. She had to be allowed time to come to him, like a shy colt. In her own time, she had. She'd let him worship her during sex. Then, she let him clean her up afterwards, the gentle caresses enough to lull her into a restful doze. Then, she allowed him to shower with her more and more frequently, less and less it being about sex. As a show of faith, he'd let her start with him. He would sink into the tubs and let her clean whatever of him she so desired, finishing when she washed herself. He would reach out, skim the tips of his fingers along her sides as she washed his hair. She grew accustomed to his increasing touches. So, one night, when he reached for the soap to lather her hair, she didn't think to fight him until his hands were already gingerly finger-combing through the knots and tangles. 

She had never been bashful about her nudity, no, that was not the issue. It took her heart, abused and broken as it was, to accept that his affections and desire to care for her came at no hidden cost. He wanted nothing other than to see her happy, warm, clean and safe. The intimacy was what she had always struggled with, been so shy and afraid of. Being in love was the only thing she was ashamed of and there was no way he could break her of the thought without hurting her more. So, he let the years pass and the physical affection come forth. He reveled in every small bit of progress and kept himself from hoping for more each time - he would never take more of her than she was willing to give, especially with so much of her already missing. He still kissed every scar, held her close to his chest every night to sleep and woke with her to the light of dawn. And each morning, he wondered how he'd ever risen before he'd met her, how he'd ever existed so incomplete. 

* * *

Three years. 

It felt like lifetimes. 

They never told anyone about Tony's decision. They let the rumours swirl and the scandal happen, but they never spoke a word. Not even when all of her efforts paid off petitioning the UN finally paid off and they de-listed the rogue Avengers and criminals. But it was Pepper who finally snapped when Steve started making demands. 

"She's not here." The ginger hissed, spinning sharply on her hell. "She's gone."

"Gone where?" Natasha asked. 

"Asgard." Rhodey muttered, stand-offishly staring at them from across the room. "She went with Thor."

"Thor returned?" Steve frowned his Captain's frown. "When was this? How long ago?"

"The first time or when he took Tony?" 

"Leave it." Bucky whispered,  _pleading_ , but Steve soldiered on.

"Both."

"The first time was four years ago now." Pepper replied sharply. "She left with him three years ago."

"And?"

"And we haven't heard from them since!" Pepper shouted, slamming a crystal glass filled halfway with gin on the marble countertop. "What the fuck do you want from us, Rogers?! We're not her, and after all that  _shit_ you pulled, we are  _not impressed_. You think you can just walk in here and bark demands at me like I owe you something? No. No way. I'm mandated by the US government to provide you with a place to live and train because Tony pledged that. The facility is upstate. You're more than welcome to  _walk_."

"Stevie,  _please_." Bucky begged, a mountain of a man shrinking in on himself at a skinny redhead's anger. "Let's just go."

"I can't believe you don't know where she is." Steve sighed, barely dodging the glassware as Pepper launched it with surprising accuracy at his face. 

"Get fucked, Steve." She spat. "You're the fucking reason she's gone."

Vision suddenly looked up. "There is a wormhole opening."

They all froze in place, the Bifrost's impact sending a fine tremble through the building. When the beam disappeared, there was a strange golden apparatus sitting in the middle of it. Rhodey was the only one brave enough to go over and touch it.

 _"Rhodey, acknowledged."_ The weird box spoke before opening up, several screens appearing. There was a flicker and then they came to life. 

Tony's smiling face met his.  _"Hey, buddy. I'm glad this thing worked."_

Thor appeared in frame next to her, knocking his forehead gently into her temple with a charmed grin.  _"I told you."_

 _"Yeah, okay, okay."_ She rolled her eyes and waved her fingers.  _"Is Pep there too, Rhodey-boo?"_

Pepper rushed over to the box. "Tony?! Tony, is that really you?"

Her voice softened.  _"Damn right. It took me a while to figure out what the hell they renamed everything up here when I was reading up on their tech, but it turns out that all my genius and invention-perchant really helped me out. This is actually a reconfigured relay from the Asgardian sentinel towers."_

"I'm so glad to see you." Pepper whimpered, taking Rhodey's hand for support. Her face softened further. 

 _"I'm actually still in the Bifrost room right now just in case this didn't actually work, but I'm glad it did. I've been trying to figure out a way for us to communicate without one of us having to have Scotty beam us back and forth."_ An indignant snort in the background.  _"I really do want to catch up, but I did do this for a reason."_

"Yeah?"

_"Thor and I are coming back for three months in a month from now. With this baby running, we shouldn't have any connection issues trying to reach each other now."_

"You're coming back?!" Pepper and Rhodey both burst out at the same time. 

She beamed back at them.  _"Yup. For a whole three months. Got some sick upgrades for the suits I left behind and some new stuff too. Thor will be coming too, obviously. And boy, do I have so much to talk about. I'll definitely have to take you here sometime Pep. And maybe you, Rho-boo, but I think you'd only like the warriors kicking each others' asses."_

"Oooh! I'm so excited. Everything will be ready for when you return, lab and all. I'll have JARVIS get right on it."

_"How is my baby doing?"_

_"Perfectly functional, sir."_ JARVIS intoned back.  _"Though I am severely overdue for a server cleanse."_

 _"Don't worry, J. Mama's got some ideas for you too."_ She smiled at the camera again, that brilliant, bright smile that they didn't know what to do with.  _"Anyway, I've got to go. Heimdall's kicking me out. I'll make sure to call you again before the week is out  and reaffirm all the plans, okay?"_

"Okay. Okay." Pepper nodded rapidly. "We'll be here. Be good."

Tony laughed.  _"Never. See you later, guys."_  The screen went black.

"You're staying here until she leaves." Pepper decreed. Rhodey made a face. 

"Duh. I'm not missing her return for anything short of a nuclear war."

Pepper straightened, then seemed to notice the team still standing there. "I thought I told you the complex was upstate? It's a long walk and you're wasting daylight."

* * *

When the Iron Man armour landed after the battle, they expected to see the grudging face of Colonel Rhodes. 

"Man, you guys are looking worse and worse for wear." Tony poked, the suit dissembling to reveal a stark change in apparel. She wore black cotton trousers with knee-high boots and a red shirt that somehow shimmered gold in the sunlight. Her hair was a trellis of wavy half-curled locks, covering her ass in a way that had to be uncomfortable in the armour. 

"Glad to know you lost no sleep all that time we were in prison." Wanda huffed. Tony's friendly smile immediately fell.

"Right, you're all unreasonable assholes." She shrugged. "You were already broken out of prison by Spangles over there before Thor even came back the first time, sweetheart, so don't try to bullshit me. And, to be completely fair, I lost sleep long before you were even born."

"So this is what you do now." Steve leveled her with an unimpressed look, the same one he shot her the first time he laid eyes on her in the helicarrier. "You take off and run away from all your problems."

"I seem to recall I was the only person left to clean up the mess after that shitstorm you left in the wake of the Sokovia Accords." She raised an eyebrow. "I seem to recall being the only one still around for anyone to point the finger at, the only person who tried to fix things - both with the team and with the public. I stuck around for three years before Thor returned, doing my damnedest to get you off the 'Shoot On Sight' list and back into the US, where you would be safe on my properties, where they couldn't get at you. So, yeah, this is what I do now. Sorry, run-buns, but I can't cry myself to sleep  _every_ night after a breakup. At one point or another, you do meet Mr. Right, and everything and everyone else is so much noise."

"Did you have that rehearsed?" Wanda hissed.

Tony squinted at her. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Don't insult the team." Natasha sighed. 

Tony laughed, dark and brittle and so different from the one over the monitor a month ago. "I had hoped we could fight together, just for old times' sake, and maybe not fight  _each other_ , but since that's self-evidently never going to happen, I'll just show myself out."

Natasha sighed. "We're not unhappy to see you, Tony."

"Could have fucking fooled me." She blew a kiss Steve's way as she climbed back in the armour, rocketing off as soon as the plates closed. 

"What the fuck, Steve?" Natasha turned, crossing her arms with a scowl.

"What?"

"Seven years and that's the best you've got?" She sighed bitterly, scowling at the ground off to her right. "You're a tactician and you didn't think of a better line that that?"

"I'm tired, Natasha."

"Evidently, so is she." The spy returned, scowl now directed at him. "It's been an uphill battle for her from the beginning. All we ever do is rebuke her whenever we don't need something from her."

"I don't-"

"Then why would you do that?" She snapped, gesturing at the Tower. "You've already got a place to sleep, a stocked fridge and all the gear you could possibly need. You don't  _need_ her anymore, so now you're free to take out your burden on her - especially now that she's not here anymore."

"Well, what other reason would she have to run to Asgard other than this?" He retorted, anger rising. 

"I don't know. You lost our chance to ask her. What about Thor? Are you not going to blame him for not being around? For harbouring her?" Natasha  _tsk_ ed. 

"Where'd Bucky go?' Sam asked. 

* * *

The elevator dinged and all four of them turned to it, ready to go to proverbial war. 

Bucky stepped out, head down, hunched in on himself and looking as meek as an assassin with a metal arm can.

"Bucky?" Tony spoke his name like a question - half of it demanding, the other half curious. 

"I'm sorry." The words jumped out of him like he'd barely been containing them. "It doesn't make up for anything, I know it doesn't, and even though I was brainwashed I still  _did_ those things and killed all those people and that's on me-"

"Backup." She paused, waving her hand in the air. "Brainwashed? Did I hear you right?"

He flinched like he'd been struck. "HYDRA reconditioned me. Wiped my memories and controlled me. I did what they told me to do and had no control over myself."

"Steve, what the-" She hissed out an angry breath before visibly calming herself. "Then I'm sorry too."

He blinked. "What?"

"I'm sorry too." She repeated, a note of remorse in her tone. 

"Wh- What for?"

"For attacking you. In Siberia."

"Why are you sorry for that?"

She ran a hand through her hair, sighing. "No one told me about what happened to you in HYDRA, Bucky. I . . . I had no idea." She smiled, self-depreciation shining through. "I knew, one day, that my parents were going to get killed. Nature of their roles, I suppose. I wasn't even as upset when they died at the time as I was in Siberia and knowing  _now_ what happened . . . I should have blown through that shitty metal wall and taken out all my dad issues on Zemo instead. So, I'm sorry I attacked you." She met his gaze. "And I forgive you."

He stiffened, swallowing thickly before looking away again. "I don't really deserve your forgiveness."

"And I don't deserve to be with Thor." She grinned. "But sometimes what we don't deserve is what we need to make ourselves worth it. I don't forgive HYDRA, but getting and staying mad at you is like a tree being pissed at the saw and not the jackass who wants to make toothpicks out of it."

Bucky's laugh was incredulous, but his smile was genuine. "That's pretty spot-on, actually. I'm . . . I'm really glad you don't hold it against me."

"My parents died when I was in my teens. I've had a whole life to get over it." Her smirk was a little more crooked. "I can't hold onto it forever. How's the compound been to you guys?"

"More than I could ever hope for." His voice went breathless as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Thank you so much."

She waved him off. "No need. I might not . . .  _be here_ anymore, but that doesn't mean I can't do my part. Or have JARVIS do it for me on my behalf."

"I just . . . " He looked over her shoulder at the other three waiting. "That was all I wanted to say you to, Miss Stark. I hope Asgard treats you well."

Her smile was soft. "I hope you freedom treats you as well as Thor treats me."

He chuckled and inclined his head, ducking out of the room.

"Well," She turned to Pepper and Rhodey, who were gobsmacked, "Bucky always was the one with manners in the comics and movies."

Rhodey snorted. Pepper shook her head to clear it. Thor smiled gently, well aware that the wound of her parents' death had only recent healed again. He was proud of her strength and her humility and his heart beat just a little faster at the thought of her whispering in his ear as King and Queen, helping him ass judgement.

The elevator dinged again and this time, it was unfriendly. 

"Steve, you'll only make this worse." Natasha warned. 

"Tony, I want answers." Steve announced, walking over to her with a purpose and strength he didn't deserve. 

"Shit outta luck, Rogers, I'm fresh out." She turned away, shoulders set. Steve's second mistake was grabbing her. 

He put more force into the hold than he thought - not get come down from his adrenaline high - and though she tried to restrain it, she yelped, stumbling with at the strength he used to pull her back to him. Like Howard when drunk, like Tiberius when angry, like investors when high, like Obadiah when she needed to be  _taught a lesson-_

Thor grunted in surprise when Mjolnir flew from his hand, slamming right into Steve and sending him flying. The weapon hovered there for a moment, floating in front of Tony like a guard dog in front of its master. Steve rolled back onto his feet, shield raised and defensive. It turned its head to face him, electricity sparking around it threateningly. 

"What the hell?" Sam muttered, eyes wide. Natasha's stare was bolted to Tony. 

Tony herself only stared at the hammer as if she'd never seen it before. "Thor, sweetheart?"

"Yes?"

"It does know it still won't let me lift it, right?"

Steve frowned. "You can't lift it and it responds to you?"

"You are an extension of me." Thor replied at length. "Mjolnir and I share a mental connection. I would imagine Mjolnir made one with you too, once you became special to me."

"So, it responds to her thoughts?" Natasha said evenly. 

"More like her desire for protection. Mjolnir is a weapon, after all."

"Protection? Protection from what?" Steve demanded.

"Last time you seen her, Captain, you embedded that very shield into the device keeping her alive." Thor answered, voice tilting downwards darkly. "And left her there. To die, if not for Vision."

Mjolnir vibrated between them.

"I didn't leave her to die." Steve said. 

"That's not what it looked like when I found her in the lab, digging broken pieces of glass from her chest." Pepper barked, angry once again. "That's not the impression I got holding her hair as she coughed up blood from the impact, waiting for her already weakened ribs to heal from being broken. Again."

"I hit the armour."

"I'm still inside it, Steve." Tony responded, voice small and tired. "God, I didn't come back here to fight or rehash this bullshit."

Thor paced up behind her, holding her tenderly against him. She ducked into him naturally, gratefully, one hand over his. 

"I shouldn't have come back at all." She sighed. 

"I missed you." Natasha blurt out, startling the audience and herself. "I- I did. I missed you. The intelligence, the witty remarks, the humour. I missed talking with you, Tony. I missed having you around. I don't want you to disappear to Asgard forever."

Tony assessed her for a long moment. "I believe you."

The room was still, the air itself cramped with trepidation. 

"You . . . You do?" Steve asked. 

"Of course. Natasha knows me very well, actually." She blinked and Mjolnir fell back. It was still in front of her, but it wasn't aggressive. "But that doesn't change anything."

"Tony-"

She smiled tightly. "I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry for giving you guys a home, for kick-starting the Avengers, for making you all the things you need. I'm not going to apologize for any of the reasons I did anything I've done. I'm not going to stand here and lay blame on anyone for anything I did. But I've got no issue telling you how I feel about how shitty you've all made me feel."

"That's not-"

"Did I sound done to you, Captain?" She snapped, Mjolnir starting to vibrate again. "I don't know what you expected of me, what your mental image of me was or is, and I don't care. I don't understand why I'm supposed to be unaffected by your words, why I'm the only one allowed to make errors in judgments, what I'm the only one who has to be squeaky-clean and infallible. I'm a genius, not an oracle. I can't see the future and I can only predict so far. Ultron? Yeah, my fault. I never dodged that. I spent years and millions of dollars attending and paying for the funerals of thousands of Sokovians I got killed. I built them new, better homes and gave them everything that I could. But don't for a second think that I built Ultron to destroy Sokovia. I didn't even  _plan_ for that to happen. It was supposed to be controlled by JARVIS, but the Knowledge Stone got in the middle and made Ultron. How was I supposed to know that was going to happen? How was I supposed to control that? But it's still my fault. I took control of that blame and that mistake by signing onto the Accords, designed to set limits, coordinate global efforts with UN allied countries so we've got legal access and, most importantly, re-establish trust with the people on the ground we're supposed to protect. That's why I did it. I was Iron Man for years without any kind of governmental oversight, but the people that I saved trusted me to save them, to protect them when the need came to it. After Sokovia, they didn't trust me to do that anymore. I need their support to continue to do my job. The Accords gave them back that trust. So I signed that fucking document. I tried to explain that to you, to appeal to you guys on an emotional level. Your response was to leave me to die."

Steve stood, stunned. Natasha averted her eyes, profoundly uncomfortable. Wanda swallowed thickly. Sam's stare was focused on Steve.

"More thoughtful than you give me credit for, huh?" She blinked back tears,  _betrayal._ "You expect me to be perfect, infallible in every instance. But when I do try to do the right thing, you blow it up in my face. You tore apart the Avengers just to make your point, to defend a man who would have been saved. But you didn't feel like  _sharing_. Not any of it - my parents, Barnes' torture, his mind control."

"She didn't  _know_?" Wanda blurted out. Steve winced. 

"I told you." Sam hissed lowly. 

"I didn't think you would help us."

Her laugh was slightly hysterical. "Wow. Count on you to not  _think_. What, did your tactician's mind think I was just going to sit quietly by and let the world continue to spin if I saw something bad happening just because the person going against my morals was  _you_? I already had that happen to me. You know what happened then? My dad's best friend paid terrorists to kill me. A new family, new friends, new lease on life only to wind up in the same position, just surrounded by snow instead of sand."

Natasha's brow furrowed. "It was Stane that ordered the assassination?"

"Yes." She scowled down at the ground, thoughtlessly rubbing the area around the Reactor. Thor approached her slowly, wrapping her up in his arms and covering her hand with his. She gave a long, burdened sigh. "This was a bad idea."

"No, love." He rumbled into her ear. "This is your home. Troubles or not, you should return to it more often. We are eternal, but Midgard is anything but. Things you have here will not last long. The world you have here will not always be here for you to return to, good or ill as it may be."

She ducked into him, seeming to hide within his bulk and disappearing into his shade. "I don't want to be here."

"I understand." He wrapped his arms tighter around her, kissing along her shoulder and neck. "We'll retire for the evening."

"I want to go back to Asgard." She murmured. 

"We'll bring Pepper and Rhodey. Guest chambers are quick to be arranged." Mjolnir floated back to his hand. 

"Thank you." She nuzzled their noses together. 

"Don't leave it like this." Natasha tried.

"I've said everything worth saying, Nat." She replied. "I'm just tired of fighting all the time. Now that I know what it feels like to be happy, I don't have it in me anymore to battle like this anymore."

Thor pulled her away, removing the communication device out of the way and hailing Pepper and Rhodey to join them.The two went without a word.


	3. Paragon

When he found her sitting on their bed, staring forlornly out the window, he had feared the worst.

What if she had grown bored with him? She'd had many, varied lovers before him and had been alone all of her human life. Perhaps the flight instinct in her had finally won out and she no longer had the ability to stay, knowing he would never make her. Had her homesickness returned in force? She did not love often, but she did so intensely, and she had people left behind that she so cared for. Perhaps her intelligence was not sufficiently stimulated here and she sought to return to her machines and science. Had her Reactor been giving her trouble she'd hidden from him? She said it required little to no maintenance, but she might not have factored such a lengthy span of time into her calculations. 

"Tony?" He asked softly, sitting down next to her in a gentle manner, as though she were a cat he didn't wish to scare off. 

She didn't startle, but her attention snapped to him. Fear was hidden in her eyes, the still but strong way she held her body. "Thor."

On him, then. "You summoned me here. Did you have something you wished to discuss?"

Her hands fisted at her sides. She wasn't wearing a skirt today, just the pants and shirt. "Not really. I mean, it's something we have to talk about, not that I really  _want_ to."

He picked up one of her hands, the small thing so fragile in his large palms. "I will not force the issue, love. Speak in your own time."

"Kinda time sensitive." She said to herself with a wince. 

He pretended not to hear and pulled her into his side, tangling his hand in her hair, stroking her cheek and kissing the top of her head. "I am here, for whatever you need me for."

He felt her swallow then laugh to herself. "And people wonder why women go to such lengths to fight over birth control."

"Pardon?"

"So, when I woke up this morning, I felt awful. You've got all those witch-doctor people floating around and I figured, what's the harm?"

He nodded, confused but encouraging. 

"I asked her if I was dying, so she checked me out. She started congratulating me and rambling about how overjoyed the kingdom will be and when she seen the look on my face she realized I didn't know what the hell she was talking about. She- She-"

He couldn't help the surprise that coloured his voice. "You're with child?"

All the air and tension left her body and she slumped over into him, face hidden in her hands. "Fuck, what the hell are we going to do?"

He curled tighter around her, as though he could shield her from the horrible feelings. "What do you mean, love?"

"I'm- I'm  _pregnant_ , Thor. I'm old, especially  _now_ so who knows what the hell that's going to do to the baby and- and- what do they even do to royal bastards here? We're not married, they'll be born out of wedlock and if it'll be treated like Loki, there's no way I'll have it-"

"Shh, shh." He pulled her onto his lap, tilting her head back. "Is this what's been on your mind since the morn? You overburden yourself." He kissed her, nuzzling their noses together. "I will assuage your fears. 'Royal bastards' are a Midgardian idea. I, myself, would fit into that category. My father was not wedlock to my mother when I was born and I was raised by my father and his wife. Loki was adopted and a Frost Giant. The prejudice is what wore him down, and the truth behind his upbringing. Whatever the manner of our child, it will not face the same life as Loki did. I will not allow it."

She swallowed weakly, but the resolve in her eyes was stern. "This has to be a promise. I won't have it grow up outcast like Loki or belittled like me."

There were times, late into the night when he traced the scars lining Tony's back knowing that some of them weren't from combat, that he wished to have met Howard Stark. He knew of him from Tony's stories, but he wished to see the man capable of such cruelty to someone under his care. Loki's torment had not come from within the family, but from external forces aware of his secret. To harm your own child . . . Thor had always been unable to conceive of it. "I will rend Asgard asunder before I see our child come to harm, in any manner."

She deflated against him again. He pulled her fully onto his lap, cradling her little body, so fragile and human. 

"As for your age, love, I should hope you would know it is irrelevant."

She peered up at him. "Pardon?"

"You accepted my offer and ate the Apple of Idunn, did you not?" 

She nodded slowly. 

"Did you simply never notice it? The weariness slowly fading from your body?"

She examined her hands. "I . . . I thought it might have something to do with being on Asgard. Like, your air might be magic or something. Land of the gods and all that."

He kissed her hair, twirling the end of the lengthy braid. "No. The Apples are what provide our long life and strength. In the eyes of the gods, you are very, very young. The Apple has worked to undo the strains of human age and renew your strength. You will be strong enough for the babe, that much I can definitely assure you."

She nodded against his breast. "Well."

He chuckled. "Well."

"With that out of the way now, I'm very tired. Feel like a nap in the garden?"

"Mmm. What about here, love?" He moved them about so he was backed against the wall, her laying draped across his chest and between his legs. He snagged his shawl, pulling it over to cover her legs. She stroked his cheek with her fingertips, the faintest of smiles on her lips. 

"I am so lucky to have you." She murmured, voice laden and heavy with emphasis and truth. 

"Nay. 'Tis I who is blessed to have you." He wrapped his arms around her. "You cannot fathom the depths to which I would sink for you. And now, the woman that I love above everything else in the world, including myself, is giving me a child. There was never a greater gift int he universe for me than meeting you."

She snuggled closer to him. "Let's see how you deal with my pregnancy before you start going on about how amazing I am."

He kissed each of her knuckles affectionately. "I will be your dutiful servant the entire way. After all, you are the one doing all the work. Why must it be you who does everything else as well?"

She flushed and ducked her head to look out the window. "If only the bullies that told me I would never find the perfect man could see me now. Hot damn."

* * *

The shadows of the evening illuminated her beautifully. 

Hair, still damp from the bath they had taken, lay above her on the pillow. Silk and light linens lay in sheets over her form, casting a glossy glamour over her body. The large swell of her stomach was still visible even through it. The belly button had popped out recently, casting a little shadow of its own in the moonlight. He'd spent hours on his knees with her, rubbing soothing cream all across her body, but especially her stomach. She was a small woman, a Migardian, carrying the next heir to the throne of Asgard. 

She had been slow and often tired, unable to do the things she would normally do. In the early stages, when she wasn't showing but the symptoms most definitely were, she got frustrated with herself for being tired constantly, or sore and bloated and moody, which only fouled her mood further. She had pouted when he'd only smiled patiently, whispering how his love for her grew every day, no matter the weather. 

"You're dangerous." She said, stroking his bearded cheek, the hair shining in the sun and silky to the touch. 

"Oh?" He replied, wrapping his arm as much as he could around her, thumbing her cheek in return. 

"When you tell me you'll love me no matter what, I'm starting to really believe you. You're real bad news. The kind of guy my mom would have warned me about."

His mouth teased up at the edges. "And why would she have warned you away?"

"Because it's easier to survive in one's own darkness than to flounder when the light is taken away." She almost immediately wanted to take back the words when she saw the light in his eyes dim, but her throat closed on her. The familiar taste of disappointing those she cared most about was clogging it. 

"I had hoped that time with me would be able to heal some of those hurts." He murmured, cupping the back of her neck. "But I've come to realize that nothing I will ever do can take away that burden."

"Thor, I-"

"I do not love you  _because of_ or  _despite_ these pains, hidden in the darkness your parents placed in your heart. They are a part of you, no matter what the future brings. At first, I wished I could knock sense into them, show them your brilliance and worth, but after holding you like this over the course of years, If ind now that I would kneel at their feet and pray. For all the damage, for all the scars, they are the reason you are here with me, as radiant as the life of Yggdrasil, and for that they are deserving of worship. I love you for all that you are, for all the things you strive to be and all the things you try not to be."

She didn't have words to respond to that with, closing her eyes against the warmth in her heart and nuzzling into his warm palm. 

"I know that your words are not intended to harm. Your panic is visible when you think you've burdened me. As much as I wish you never had to live through it, neither of us can change the past. I simply resolve myself now to stand beside you if pain creeps your way again so that you will not be alone, beating back the darkness. I hold your heart in my hands and I know what a fragile thing it is. I know that you treat mine just as carefully. I can see the way you struggle with your doubts, even still, the way worry hangs from you like a cloak. I cannot save you, but I've learned that you do not need saving. You need patience and care, unwavering love that you can lean on when you need it and be assured that it will always be there. You are my Midgardian Sun, but all fires nees stoking and tending."

"I'm not like that for you."

"How are you so sure?" He crooned, pulling her just a little closer, angling her so that her pregnant belly would not get in the way of laying her head on his chest. "I've never experienced a love as wholesome as yours. There is nothing you wish to gain other than my heart. You show me all the time, in all the smallest motions that seize me. It's in the way you never ask anyone for help but me, the way you smile when you see me, how you learned to braid simply to do my hair, the tender kisses you leave on my nose when I'm napping in the courtyard, how you scent a bath for me if I return late and you're already asleep. All of your love for me is encapsulated in the way you touch my face as though I am made of glass, even though you've stood side by side with me in battle and witnessed the kind of damage I can take. You kiss me like I am vital, irreplaceable, essential. Even pregnant, you come to me, do these little things even though they tax you greatly. I am very well assured of my place in your love, in this very fragile little heart, and would never wish to see something so precious shattered."

He said nothing when he felt her tears seep into his shirt, only holding her closer. 

"I love you." She whimpered, holding tightly onto him. 

"I love you too." He murmured back, kissing the crown of her head. 

* * *

He walked into the adjoining room, the door kept open so he could hear his little one's cries, only yo find Loki there. 

"Brother." He said, surprised. 

Loki looked up from where he had the babe cradled against his breast, a thin green cotton sleep shirt separating her from him. "The girl is only hours old. Tony needs as much rest as she can take and you've been awake well past even your own limits. Allow me to handle her for the evening."

"That is . . . very kind of you."

"I am not unreasonably cruel."

"I never said you were. Of everybody ever on your side . . . "

Loki rolled his eyes, but his smile was good-natured. "Go to your woman. She needs you now, likely more than ever. I shall dutifully watch over my niece."

He chuckled lowly, walking over to kiss first Thrud - getting a sleepy gurgle for his trouble - and then the top of Loki's head. His brother looked up at him warily, but did not rebuke the attention. 

"Sleep." The trickster commanded once more, returning his attention to the baby. 

With a smile, he turned away and back to his bedroom, where Tony was blinking at him sleepily. 

"Thor?" She murmured.

"I am here, love. Rest with me." He coaxed. 

"Thrud . . ."

"She is taken care of." He soothed, helping her lay back down and climbing into bed himself to spoon her. She settled readily into his embrace, sleeping again within moments, exhausted beyond her means. 

Loki's smooth voice lilted from their child's bedroom, an Asgardian nursery rhyme being sung in soft, deepened tones. Thrud gurgled at him too at increasingly lengthy intervals, asleep like her mother soon enough. 

"Such a precious thing." Loki cooed, likely petting her pudgy face. "Not around even a day and I'm your servant. More like your mother than your father in spirit, it seems."

Thor nuzzled closer to Tony, letting himself sink into the warmth of her skin, falling asleep himself. Rhodey and Pepper would have their chance to fawn over the babe in the morning - Loki could have his chance now. 

* * *

Loki stood off to the side, Thrud clinging to the gold of his ceremonial armour that matched her new hair. He adjusted her little dress, quieting her murmurs as the audience fell into a hush. The whole amphitheater was filled, gods and commoners of all walks come to see the union of the Crown Prince and his Migardian consort.  

Thor stood at the top of the dais in full regalia next to his father, doing his best to keep the smile off his face. He knew that as soon as he seen her, he would be a bumbling mess. Best to maintain an image of nervousness instead of giddy, boyish excitement. According to Loki, anyway, it was unbefitting of a future king and a to-be husband waiting to see the woman who would be his wife. 

"Are you nervous?" Fandral asked from the step below. 

"No." He replied. "I am anxious."

"Second-guessing?"

He managed a smirk without breaking out into full beaming pride. "Thrilled anticipation. I would have married her the day she moved to Asgard, but she was not ready."

Fandral, playboy that he was, seemed to have no idea what that felt like, so let it be. Loki, from across the hall and standing on Tony's side, narrowed his eyes at Fandral, as though threatening him to keep his mouth shut and his second-guesses to himself. He promptly followed the unspoken advice just as the doors to the hall were pulled open and the procession began.

Rhodey and Pepper, her 'next of kin', marched on ahead of her, arm in arm. Several children followed, tossing little handfuls of flowers above their heads. Next walked out Sif, the warrior chosen as the ceremonial defender of the bride. She was in full armour, coming to kneel at the base of the dais. Then Tony entered. 

Her dress was relatively simple, a white bodice with long, flowing sleeves. The skirt was her hotrod red, all of the accents in gold, including the flowers woven into her hair. The long, brown tresses done up ornately in braids, all of them woven with red and gold flowers. She, too, wore ceremonial armour across her chest and shoulders, greaves peeking out from the slit in the front part of her skirts. Her makeup was glowing, bringing even more light and allure to her face than it already had. She held her head high, taking measured and graceful steps across the large hall. 

Normally,she would be escorted by her mother or his mother if hers was unable. She walked alone, but unashamed. Sif rose when she reached the dais, walking a foot away from her and a foot in front of her. Sif stopped facing him, crossing her arms over her chest aggressively, waiting for his nod before bowing and stepping back to stand just above Loki. With a grateful smile, Tony smiled at her briefly before stepping up the last little bit to stand face to face with Thor. 

"And here I was, thinking you could never look more lovely." He whispered, extending his hand to her. She took it without hesitation, beaming at him. 

"To be fair, I didn't think you could look any more attractive in armour than you already do. Wrong on that front, certainly."

He beamed right back. Two idiots desperately in love, even in front of the majority of the Asgardian public. 

 _You would weep in pride, Frigga._ Odin thought, thumbing his own wedding band.  _Your sons have been united by love and children, locked together as family once more._

"Say now, in front of the All-Father and an audience of your family, friends and peers, your vows of marriage."

Tony cleared her throat, taking a deep breath before locking eyes with him. "I've come across galaxies, left behind a home, a life, a world to be at your side. You've given me joy and light - the kind of unimaginable happiness people write poems to convey. I'm . . . just so  _lucky_ to have you. It's me you've been waiting for, so . . . This is it, baby." Her smile was watery, but thrilled. "I'm yours. Forever."

He squeezed her hand, blinking back his own tears. 

"And the groom." Odin prompted. 

"You are everything that is worth fighting for in my world. You've given me your mind, your body, you soul, your heart and I am nothing more than a humble servant receiving gifts I am unworthy of. I want to be the man who hangs the sun in your sky, illuminates the moon to light your way in the dark, brings a smile to your face and makes you long when I'm away. If you will have me, I am yours. I have been yours since the moment you laid eyes on me and I will be yours unto the ending of time."

"Do you accept the vows of your groom?' Odin asked. 

"I do." She said, trying to contain her grin. 

"Do you accept the vows of your bride?" Odin asked. 

"I do." He inclined his head.

"Then, by mine own power," Odin pulled their tangled hands up, wrapping a beautiful red and gold-embroidered ribbon about the wrists, "I bind you together as man and wife under the gazes of the gods."

They accepted the wine glasses brought up by Sif, looping their arms together then drinking from the glasses. Sif accepted them back. 

"Go, and may happiness follow where you lead." Odin clapped his hand together and the hall erupted in cheering. Even Thrud in Loki's arms bubbled over in excitement, tugging on her uncle's robes and pointing at her parents, giggling like mad. 

"You silly thing." He chuckled in return, pinching her cheeks. 

"Don't be getting too soft on the girl now." Sif ribbed. "She'll grow up knowing only the side of you that is weak to her at this rate."

"Someone must." He jabbed back, mood playful for once. Thrud had weakened him to joy. 

Thor pulled Tony into a beautiful kiss right there on the dais, making the noise double. She melted into him, laying her head on his chest once they'd parted, and waving giddily at the crowd. The Crown Prince and Princess, at last.


	4. Paladin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snippets of Thrud's life.

_She's beautiful_ , Loki thinks, holding the babe to his chest.

She's nearly nine months old to the day now, ringlets of golden hair curling about her cheeky face, azure eyes blue like her father's, but deep and dark like her mother's. She's got her parents' skin tones - olive and kissed by the sun. She'll be a darling girl and a stunning woman, striking and powerful. 

She is an active babe, but not restless. She is loud, but not prone to fits. She laughs more than she cries. She giggles and beams like the sun itself when she is held by her father, as though she wants nothing more than to be like him. She coos and gurgles when she's in her mother's arms, chatty, but content and largely distracted by the glowing circle of light that adorns the woman's chest - she loves that light, perhaps because she knows that it is what keeps her mother alive. But with him- with him, she is someone else entirely. 

* * *

 _I was right_ , Loki agrees with himself. 

She's a few months shy of five years old. The Asgardian sun resides in her skin even when it's not present and her golden curls have lengthened, stretching into waves. Her eyes have gotten no lighter - in fact, he finds them leaden with wisdom beyond her fragile young years. And she is most certainly darling. 

She sits in the gardens, gazing out at the heavens with a quiet kind of curiosity. Perhaps it is a remnant of him bringing her out here as an infant, murmuring the names of stars in the dead of night as the castle breathed in slumber. Legs tucked under her now, hands in her lap and hair braided down her back, she sits and tilts her head back to take in as much as she can. 

During the day, she is excitable and runs amok in the palace. She play fights with Sif, runs between servants' legs and wrestles with Volstagg's sons, coming back breathless and covered in mud. He's always surprised at the soft expression of fondness that overcomes Tony's face, puzzled by it, but expecting Thor's booming, affectionate laugh. 

At night, she is like this, calm and still as a glass of water. He knows that she is unaware of his presence and oft he has debated going to sit next to her, but he is simply too fascinated with her. Some nights, she's even a book of star maps with her, looking up the time of year and the corresponding map of the sky, head dipping at regular intervals to read it over, searching for the new pattern of lights. 

* * *

Loki looks up when the door to his bedroom creaks open. 

He is sitting by candlelight, near his window in the early hours of the morn, reading over a spellbook. She peeks her head in, abruptly turning bashful when they make eye contact. 

"I was worried." She admits without prompting, allowing herself inside and standing meekly. She is awkward - caught between a girl and a woman, a squire and a knight. Tall, but lanky, not yet come into the muscular form she shares with her father. Her hair is messily braided for sleep, no longer done by her mother. 

"Whatever for?" He asks, gentle and reassuring as he can be. It is endearing to see her so, but it sparks worry as well - she is too young for night terrors of losing her family. 

"You were not there." She says. With no response, she flushes and stares down at her own hands. "In the gardens, watching over me. I thought, perhaps, something had happened. You all hide when you've taken ill from me and I . . . I was worried."

She is so meek, head bowed and stance small. He shifts, opening up space on the small couch. 

"Come." He gestures. She looks up, confused. "I got caught up in my research and lost track of the time. You can sit with me now, if you'd like. I am a natural illusionist, but elemental magics don't come as easily to me as they do you, or your father. Would you like to read with me?"

She jerks, as though her first instinct is to immediately go, but then she stops herself. "Are . . . Are you sure? I simply came to check up on you. I don't want to interrupt important work over-" She swallows thickly, "over something foolish."

He sets the book down over the arm of the couch, walking over to her and pulling her close. She folds into him easily, wrapping her arms around him in curiously desperate manner. "My dear girl, you are never a burden. In fact, I find myself quite invigorated by your presence."

She squeezes him for a moment and he is abruptly reminded that despite here currently slender form, she is indeed a born warrior with puppyish strength she cannot recognize. "If you're sure."

"Of course, my dear." He presses his cheek into her hair, cradling the back of her head comfortingly, like he used to do when he could still pick her up.

She lets him go, eyes still swirling with doubt and uncertainty. He leads her back to the settee, pulling her under an arm and laying the book down on her lap. This chapter is on light, a good start for him from an illusion background, but she couples well with lightning and takes a swift and fervent interest. Small comments of hers become discussions on the mechanics of the magic and the differences in their thinking on the matter. 

Neither one notice the sun has risen until they are startled by Tony, standing at the door with a grin plastered across her face, dressed for the day.

* * *

She is a young woman, duelling Volstagg's oldest in the courtyard. 

Wearing heavy leather underarmour, found normally under the plating or scale, he gathers there was a bet on whether she could beat the other man with a weapon new to her. 

He finds her knocking aside the man's shield with the blunt end of a pike, the lengthy weapon sliding around her like water to rest the sharp tip at his throat. The other sparring warriors are impressed, but she dismisses the praise modestly. Thor was not a humble man as he grew, but Tony taught her the difference between pride and arrogance. She'd lived her whole Midgardian life walking the line between them, after all. 

She tosses the pike back to the man who'd leant it to her, walking back over to the swords she'd been practicing with. She cannot decide if she favours blades or blunt weapons, but she definitely prefers one-handed weapons. She certainly finds the most visceral joy in melee fighting. She's like a ghost on the battlefield, all of that fantastic bulk light on its feet and keen to adapt, nearly impossible to pin and hard to counter. She is slippery, hard to hit, and her strikes are swift and severe. She is made up of corded muscle and speed brought on by a fast mind. 

He dares in the privacy of his own mind to admit that she is a better fighter than Thor was at that age, but he hopes with all of his heart that she never has to properly use it. 

* * *

Pepper and Rhodey seem surprised to find her a woman when they visit. The CEO has begun to grey, but it is not particularly noticeable. 

She is visibly more restrained with them than she is with an Asgardian. She handles them gently, like newborns. Perhaps she feels even more aware of her strength due to the way she towers over them, wider in the shoulders than Colonel Rhodes and a head taller than Miss Potts in heels. 

She also does not treat them the way she treats him. She is not familiar with them in the same way, not as tactile or responsive. What does get her attention is any references to Stark Industries. She is desperate for information on her mother's company, thirsting to learn of this new technology. Fascinated as ever by Midgard, like her father, and drawn to that little circle of blue light since she could open her eyes on her own. She is rapid and insatiable then. When Tony hands over designs Pepper asked for, she is quick to explain them.

She loves her Aunt Pepper and her Uncle Rhodey with all her heart - they are her other's only family, after all - but he has always been a selfish enough creature to take pride in the fact that she loves him more and always has. 

* * *

It is early in the morning, still bathed in moonlight, when she knocks on his chamber door. 

"Enter." He calls back. 

She comes inside with a contagious smile on her lips and sweat coating her powerful body. She holds up a cuirass, faud and hauberk. The hauberk is glimmering silver, made of interwoven scales, not unlike that of a fish, that would allow for speed and flexibility. The cuirass and faud are both hardened leather with reinforced silver linings. The underside of the faud is that same scale. She has forgone a pauldron, but the matching vambraces and greaves she has are as beautiful as they are intricate. 

"Mother and Tyr helped me, but I've done it, Uncle." She lights up the room, dimming the fire in the hearth with her radiance. "I made my own armour."

Pride wells up inside him and his eyes mist over. He has to restrain himself, lest his emotions override him, but he manages to cup her cheeks. 

"You are magnificent. No armour will ever do you justice, but I can already tell this set will be damned if it doesn't try."

She bows her head, still a bashful little girl in his presence, and he is awash with the kind of parental pride and secondhand elation that he is not entitled to. 

"My girl," He coos, "the greatest wonder the Nine Realms will ever know."

 _I do not deserve to know you_ goes unsaid, washed away in the light and love of her smile.

* * *

* * *

Bucky did not meet Thor. Steve said he was a kind man, strong and hiding an intelligent mind behind a brutish front. 

Bucky did not meet Tony, not really. On her, he was less inclined to trust Steve's opinion. Natasha had a relatively neutral view, telling him facts about her, citing some major differences between the persona he would read about and who she was behind closed doors, away from the public. No one seemed to know very much about the woman who was Iron Man, but then, after his last meeting with her in the Tower and realizing for himself the vast character within her that allowed her to be capable of such compassion, he didn't think anyone really knew her all that well. 

Still, when lightning broke loose on a cloudless day in the middle of battle, Clint was quick to cheer for Thor's arrival. Nearly twenty years since the incident in the Tower and no one on the team had heard from them, let alone seen them. 

Who caught the Doombot was a tall blonde, golden waves waist-length, in armour of polished steel and navy leather, a blood-red cape fluttering in the breeze. The Bots were quick to turn their attention to the newcomer, but there was no competition. Lightning rippled along the steel, lancing down two swords and frying the circuits before the blade even sliced through them. The power of the swings sent the hunks of metal flying, crashing and destroying other robots. With the Asgardian on their side, the battle ended quickly and with little resistance. 

"Thor, buddy, long time no see!" Clint called, running up to them with a grin. Even Natasha looked relieved, as much as she could. 

 _Thor here means Tony is not far behind_ her eyes read and Bucky hoped she was right. Iron Man, in all her red and gold glory. 

"Thor?" Steve calls, a little louder. 

The blonde turns, a smile on her face. "Aye, I'm told a lot that I look like my father. However, my name is Thrud."

Clint stops, cocking his head like he doesn't understand. "You're Thor's daughter?"

"Aye." She flicks her wrists and the ornate swords vanish. A silver light overruns her form and the thicker armour retreats. Her chestplate and battle skirt are still there, but made of leather instead of steel and her arms are bare. She looks soft, kind. 

 _Innocent_ the Winter Soldier supplies. A kinship, he supposes.

"So, are you Tony's too?"

Thrud chuckles, as though a toddler asked her a foolish question. "Of course. Who else would my mother be?"

"I dunno. They're both kind of . . .  _free_ with themselves." Wanda shrugs. Vision, at her side, sighs in disapproval. JARVIS' loyalty to her would never be bred out of him, no matter how much time passed. 

Thrud blinks at her, as though that also doesn't make sense. "Do you . . . dislike my parents?"

"No, we don't." Natasha says, before they can make an enemy of a woman they've barely met yet. "There is just some unfinished personal business your mother has with the team. That's between us, though. Nothing to do with you, or your father."

She nods, as if that's enough, her smile dimmer, but returning. "Well, I am here for a year, so perhaps I will better make your acquaintance in the meantime. Unfortunately, I am due to meet Aunt Pepper at the Tower. Farewell, Avengers."

She waves to them before she takes off into the sky, rocketing away. 

* * *

Bucky almost doesn't recognize her the next time he sees her. 

"You are the Winter Soldier, yes?" She asks. 

He winces. 

"Bucky." She amends.

"Yes." He says.

"I'm very grateful I got to meet you. Mom tells me stories about you all the time."

He tries his best not to shrink away from her, his body almost assured a beating is coming his way. "About what?"

"Your efforts during the war, your resilience during your capture and torture, both times." She smiles again, tinted with sadness and compassion. "I don't think I would do well in a similar situation."

He can't help himself and snorts. "You're the daughter of a god. I think you'd do just fine."

She shakes her head, looking up at the sky. "I think too much or too little, unable to find a place that's just me to hide in. Despite all the violence, you're still you. I don't know if I could accomplish that."

He is struck dumb by her, even more so when she looks back down at him, hands in her pockets. 

* * *

She has indeed been here a year, standing at the top of the Tower in the full regalia she's not used much since she came. She is beautiful, ageless as her godly heritage would lead you to believe. She spent quite some time with them, but they feel like they did not spent an equal amount of time learning about her. 

Except Bucky. 

Thrud was a a strange source of comfort, an ear and a shoulder who knew nothing about him and that would likely never return for another lengthy period again. Pepper and Rhodey are in their sixties and another twenty year gap might mean she never sees them again. She was a goddess, someone so far above him, but so human. She did not judge him, had no harsh words and laughed through life. 

He doesn't understand how someone so otherworldly could be so down to earth. 

"Why me?" He asks her, so bewildered and confused. 

She smiles at him, the kind that lights up his heart with warmth. "Uncle Loki, too, is someone no one can fix. Sometimes, there is no fixing - it's been too long or the wounds are simply too deep. It is very hard to learn to love someone like that, to be able to admit to yourself and to them that they've done wrong adn that, while you do not approve of it, you love them anyway. Second chances have to be given before they can be earned."

He stands, dumbfounded. Thrud hugs him. 

"Mom is far from faultless. She knows herself better than anyone gives her credit for and raised me to watch myself in a similar fashion. But Father had to redeem himself in his youth. He could not be the king he is now locked away in a dungeon. Mom could not be the person she is if she had not forged her way in fire from the cave in Afghanistan, if someone had not bought her the time to do so. Your prison is your mind, locked away and alone with memories you can't escape, deeds branded onto your skin. Someone must lend you their torch, otherwise you would stay in darkness and in doubt the rest of your life, unaware that you keep passing the exit to your misery to cycle back around."

He clings to her, for once smaller than the person he was seeking comfort in. He wants to cry, but he doesn't know how and part of him doesn't want to.

"I can't say if I will ever see you again, Bucky." She says as she steps back, the Bifrost hitting the platform behind her. Her red cape swirls in its wake. "But I hope you realize you are not evil. There are very, very few things in this world that are well and truly evil, beyond even hope and redemption. You are not one of them."

And then, she is gone. Tony's beautiful daughter. 

The world is greyer without her there, but he holds her words and her warmth close to his heart, allowing the Soldier to siddle up beside him and bask in it. They only have each other in this prison, but Thrud's lingering light is enough to convince them that, for now, that's enough.

* * *

* * *

Loki watches Thrud return with a distinct relief. 

Thor and Tony are obviously there to greet her and they listen raptly to all of her stories until well into the evening. 

But when the moon has lit the gardens up a cool blue and the other stars take their turn to wheel overhead, it is his side she comes to, a soft and simple girl with too much space in her curious mind to be filled and too much love in her heart to keep all for herself. 

"I'm glad you're home." He says. 

She lays her head on his shoulder, tall enough to do it with ease. "As am I."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
